


well, shit

by kinpika



Category: My Candy Love
Genre: Current Y/C, F/M, Past C/C relationship, awkwardly running into your ex after a concert, request from tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 07:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15601104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinpika/pseuds/kinpika
Summary: “When you said your ex, I didn’t think…” Trailing off, Yeleen simply balls her hands into the front of his shirt.





	well, shit

Had it not been from the crazy amount of mental fortitude she’d acquired over the years, Candy was sure she would’ve backed out by now. It may have also been from how Rosalya had an arm on her, locked and refusing to let her budge, just in case she did flee. And, did Candy consider bailing hard. 

“This wasn’t a good idea, Rosa.” Upping the amount of desperation in her voice, she hoped that perhaps _this time_ it would get her point across.

Instead, Rosalya just clicked her tongue. “You’ve already said that.”

The same argument, all the way up and down from the dorm rooms. Or maybe it started sometime the last week, when it finally hit Candy that ‘the day’ was growing inevitably closer. D-day, as marked on her calendar. Circled in red, highlighted in her diary. Notification on her phone set for forty-eight, twenty-four, twelve hour reminders. Just so she wouldn’t forget — not that she could anyway, as she’d been in a haze since realising. Stumbling through the last week of classes, the only clear thought being ‘soon’.

Rosalya thought she was going crazy, and Candy was starting to agree. 

“You don’t _have_ to talk to him,” Rosalya reminds her, tone a little more gentle. “Not if you don’t want to.” A small reassurance, sure, but that was the whole reason why they’d set out for his concert. Just so maybe, on some small possibility, that Candy could get a conversation in with Castiel.

Just thinking of his name made her heart race, a little more than it should’ve. “What if he doesn’t remember me?” Definitely one of the more plaguing thoughts she’d had, since first seeing the poster. Of course, it was beaten down with comments of ‘as if he would forget!’, yet that didn’t stop her from twisting the material of her dress between her fingers while they waited in line.

Alexy and Priya had gone ahead of them, citing something about getting the best table with the better view. Candy hadn’t pressed them about how they knew so much, as those sorts of questions always led to awkward silences and changing topics. Looks between friends, making the reality of what happened then hurt a little more. So they avoid those sorts of things like the plague. 

But this was something they were all walking into headfirst, it seemed.

Flashing their ID, Rosalya and Candy walk in, arm in arm. Rosalya leads them forward, squeezing through the still growing crowd towards the supposed best table in the house. Candy can’t tell if she’s talking, or just thinking aloud, but doesn’t catch onto the words exactly. Not when she notes the setup on the stage, eyes locked immediately on the familiar guitar. Cherry red, well loved, sitting front and centre. Vaguely, Candy recalled the last time she’d been around to replace the strings. She was sure that Castiel didn’t need some former classmate to do that now. 

So much had changed. And she hadn’t even seen him yet.

Hands drop onto her shoulders, snapping her out of her reverie. Before her, Alexy stands, wide grin on his face. Candy hadn’t even noticed that Rosalya had left her, and took a few moments to blink, get her bearings. “Hey, sorry,” she says, hugging Alexy in greeting. “A little out of it.”

“No way, really?” the light sarcasm has her smile, even a little, as Alexy pulls back. His hands don’t leave her shoulders, not just yet. Not even as his eyes narrow, nor as he leans in. “I can take you home if you want. Rosa may think this is a good idea, but you don’t look good, Candy.”

“I’m fine. Seriously. I just… I want to do this.” Even to her own ears, Candy could tell that her tone was not nearly as convincing as she’d hoped. Not that she was trying, at this point, with how her hands were shaking. “It may be the only chance I get.”

And that was the truth of it all. As bad as it sounded, once they had broken up, she’d taken to following her own path with something like an absolute deafness to everything else. Single-minded perseverance had served her well, up until that point, but if she hadn’t seen the poster, she wouldn’t have known he was going to be back. Candy was sure she wouldn’t have let herself think of Castiel until then, definitely.

Alexy looks unconvinced, but releases her finally. Says something about getting a drink, and Candy watches as he shakes his head as he walks away. Maybe he knew something she didn’t. Maybe he was just looking out for her. Candy couldn’t say, for sure, as she stood at the table, feeling awkward. So many people around, voices clamouring upwards as time passed. The concert was supposed to start in fifteen, but in her experience that meant it would start in thirty. Candy took the offered drink, and sipped through the straw. Well, it wasn’t like she wasn’t used to the waiting game, anyway.

A few more minutes wouldn’t kill her.

 

 

As he steps out from the side entrance, Castiel can still hear the last note ringing around the bar. Sung back, hundreds of times over, echoing all the way out into what passed as a dressing room. Even after all this time, it was still such a surreal feeling, knowing that _that_ was the reaction he got. And as much as he wanted to linger, for just a few more minutes, until the song died out, Castiel was ushered into a chair, journalist or reporter or maybe just a few fans with a blog already at the ready.

Rapid fire questions, ones he could barely wrap his head around. Or, it might’ve been one of those things, where they just want the first answer off the top of his head. Castiel was never sure, just as he was never sure why his manager organised things like this. Voice a little on the raw side, Castiel only answered what he was sure he could get out, answers short and clipped. Any other night, he would’ve probably been a little more interactive, but. But.

His phone buzzes. That was the reason why.

“Sorry, I’ve got to take this.” And that’s all the warning he gives, as he snatches it before it rings out. Walks towards the far corner, hand already going to his ear to block out everyone else. The last thing he hears is his manager apologising for his ‘behaviour’, and it takes everything not to react. Instead, Castiel waits for the voice on the other side to respond to his “hello?”

_“There you are!”_ The voice, so warm and inviting, did make him smile. _“What took so long?”_ Even with how pushy it was. Definitely endearing.

Looking over his shoulder, Castiel noticed that the rest of the band had begun clearing out, no doubt ready to move the party to the main bar. Good. Less people to listen in. “Had an interview thrown at me. You still here?” Of course she would be, but that was beside the point. Castiel was going to ask, anyway.

_“Usual spot. Got a beer with your name on it.”_

“God, I love you.”

She laughs, pretty and melodic, telling him she’ll see him soon, just as she hangs up. With a smile, Castiel watches the name _‘Yeleen’_ fade out from his screen, and can’t help as he presses his phone against his forehead. Despite the laughter, Castiel knew she wanted to talk. And whether this be The Talk, or just a general one, he didn’t quite catch. Honestly, he didn’t know if he was ready for something like that. But he’d do it, because if his last few relationships told him anything, it was communication worked.

With a sigh, Castiel shoves his phone in his pocket, pats himself down for his wallet, and heads out the door. Get it over with as soon as possible, he told himself, that way he could leave on a happier note than last time. At the door to the bar, Castiel waits for a communication between security. Checks his nails, checks his hair. Notices how his left ankle really still did hurt from the slip over cords a week before, and doesn’t linger on it too long. Not when the door swings open, and the heavy feeling of the front bar took him.

Thanking the bouncers, Castiel was able to take exactly five steps in, before he stops dead in his tracks. 

“Castiel?”

Already so focused on the ground, Castiel first notices the shoes, the anklet. Legs, so familiar, that they’d been more than once the focus of his attention. Higher and higher, past the dress and the folded arms, the glittering nails. And he has to close his eyes, before he saw her face. Already, he knew who it was, just from the way she said his name, like it was a private conversation, only the two of them knew about. Oh no.

Castiel could think of at least three different, preferred scenarios, to the one he just found himself walking into. For starters, not having people hang around the side door, but that one was just never a reality these days. Second would probably someone getting him a beer, and letting him hide out until they had to move on. Third? Third was definitely _not_ this. Nowhere near this. Anything _but_.

Coming face to face with Candy was so far down the list on things he would rather be doing, Castiel nearly closed the door on her. And he couldn’t question if it was her, because he remembered every little damn thing about her, from her hair, to her eyes, to the birthmark that poked out the collar of her dress, comfortably blending in to the skin of her collarbone. 

“Fuck me.” All he could muster, as horrible as it sounded. That meant she was at the show, listening to his songs. Listening to his lyrics. All the words and emotions about her, piled into a two hour show. Of course Castiel knew the possibility of her appearing at one was something he couldn’t control, nor her buying a CD. But if he convinced himself it was never going to happen, then he could move on.

But he stood, rigid and rooted, under her gaze. Castiel watches her mouth form a small ‘o’, lips a little on the glossier side, cheeks a little flushed. His own face was burning too, whether it be because of the temperature in the bar, the heat of the lights above him, or just because Candy was standing before him, all dolled up blue, had the same effect it had on him all those years ago. 

Weakly, he goes to speak. “Candy? I—what? What are you doing here? You left town.”

There’s something that was probably a laugh, happening in front him. Nervous, a hand going to play with her hair. “About that,” she starts, mouth open and ready to continue, when

There’s no time to think, not when Yeleen runs at him, a shout of his name. Her arms go around him immediately, his hands reflexively catching her hips. All one fluid motion of hoisting her up enough, for a kiss and laugh. But that wasn’t coming from him, not at all. Castiel wasn’t looking at Yeleen, or how her legs went around his waist. 

Castiel couldn’t take his eyes off watching the way Candy’s face fell, slowly and painfully, just like when the Titanic first met the iceberg. 

Clearly, his lack of reaction clued Yeleen in on something more. Setting herself down, she takes one good, hard look at him, before spinning around. Almost comically, her eyes widen, and Yeleen points one accusatory finger at Candy. Man, he really didn’t have enough energy for this. Or mental capabilities to interrupt before something bad happened. 

“What are _you_ doing here?”

From the way both girls looked at each other, hackles raised, Castiel thought of another two different situations he would’ve rather have been on. Of _course_ they knew each other, in some way. 

“I’m here with _friends_ , Yeleen.”

“And why are you over here when they’re over _there_?”

A perfectly acceptable question, sure, except Candy’s eyes flicker over to him. Sure, it _might’ve_ been an appropriate length of time, but Castiel felt himself staring back just so easily. Like no time had been between them at all. Like they were still fresh out of high school, spending each day together, talking in the present, never about the future. He still remembered their last conversation, the last _real_ one, before she left.

Yeleen stares at him, so hard, she might as well have bored holes into his head. Watching the realisation click in her eyes had him finally look away from the both of them, fixating on a spot in the far corner of the bar. Where he would much rather have been.

“When you said your ex, I didn’t think…” Trailing off, Yeleen simply balls her hands into the front of his shirt. An uneasy silence falls over all three of them, as if no-one from the crowd dared to enter this strange little scenario. A wide berth had been given around them, and quite frankly Castiel wish something, anything, would happen. Just to end this.

Finally, Candy sighs. “Well, shit.”


End file.
